Open the door to your personality

The colour of your front door says a lot about who lives inside

Beauti-Tone offers its top 10 shades for front doors. French Navy Blue SC007: Like a uniform or a great business suit, this colour commands respect. A door colour that says sophisticated success .

"I see a red door and I want to paint it black," Mick Jagger once sang.

Was he feeling a bit blue? Not at all. According to a new colour survey, the Rolling Stones frontman just wanted to tell the world that he'd gone from being happy chappy to a money-making mogul, with a simple change of paint colour.

Turns out, if eyes are the window to the soul, your front door is the portal to your personality.

At least that's the word from a 2,000-person survey conducted for UK paint manufacturer Farrow & Ball. According to their results, red door fanciers are the relaxed life of the party, while those behind black doors are successful. If you're lucky, you live next to a purple door, whose owners are sociable, bubbly and chatty with a huge circle of friends. And if pink is your poison? You're popular and daring, but as mischievous as a bag of monkeys.

"If you have a smart, well-painted front door, the colour says a lot about your personality," says Sarah Cole, UK marketing director at Farrow & Ball, which is running a competition for the most beautiful front door. "It's the welcoming part of your house and it gives people an indication of what's inside. It expresses your personality and what's important to you."

But that should involve more than just a lick of colour, says Janise Saikaley, owner of Wellington West village's Uproar Paint and Paper.

"There's a lot of junkiness that happens in front doors," she says. "It's not a drop-off zone and it's not your exterior mud room. One of my pet peeves — and I know I'll be shot for this — is, if you can afford to buy a $1,000 baby buggy, put it somewhere else than beside the front door. Be respectful of your neighbours and the street appeal of the neighbourhood."

She recommends starting with the basics: Choose a colour that not only appeals to you, but fits with the style and era of your home. For brick houses — particularly older ones — Saikaley suggests using the exterior colour as a basis to either create contrast or blend with the front door. If you have a secondary front door, it should be painted a different, less noticeable, colour.

Garage doors present a special problem, particularly in subdivisions where garages jut out in front of the house. In those cases, the bigger the door, the less noticeable it should be. It should it be a lighter, more washed-out colour than the front door, with the porch painted the same as the grout.

"You don't have to match your front door to your garage door — that's a designer no-no. Why do you want to see the garage door screaming at you when the front door is lost?" Equally important is lighting and a prominent house number, "which makes your home more welcoming and easier to find," she says. "Weak lighting is a sign of a bad front entrance. Highlight it using beautiful lanterns or beautiful sconces. Update the light fixture on your garage, too. I like smaller lights on the garage and the big one on the front door, if the garage is in front of the house."

Architectural elements add interest and focus, too. For front doors offset from the centre of the house, a wrought iron planter — never plastic — "gets your attention and automatically guides you on a path to the front door," she says. "On the door itself, I love handmade numbers and door knockers. If you're stuck for hardware, go for an oiled bronze or black matte finish and always have full-sized screen or glass on a screen door so the colour can be seen." Shrubs and planters can also add interest, along with a beautiful cedar or teak storage box for recycle bins.

"Keep your front door clean, tight and respectful of the neighbourhood," she says. "Your front door should always be welcoming, tidy and a little bit glamorous." To achieve that look, follow these tips:

- If you have a house number near the door, choose a noticeable colour or handmade number plate rather than a simple black or white.

- Paint the underside of a porch canopy to add interest to the entire area.

- Only paint exterior surfaces if the temperature has been above 8 C for more than five days.

- Take one day for prep, one day to prime and two days to apply two coats. "If you put a second coat of nail polish on too fast, the second coat is gummy," says Saikaley. "Same with paint."

- To get the best finish, paint in the morning and not in the full sun.

- If you chose a high-gloss finish, the colour will seem a shade darker. Gloss is excellent for a classic look in strong colours, while exterior satin creates a more relaxed feel for softer colours.

- If you paint the back door a different colour, "keep within the same weight of colours. Stay in one colour family and link the two together," says Farrow & Ball's Cole.

- Choose a colour a shade or two darker than you'd normally have inside, since doors are in daylight.

- Consider painting the frame and door the same colour to make it feel grander.

- Layer colour in your outdoor space by painting garden furniture.

What does your door say about you?

According to Farrow & Ball's recent survey of 2,000 homeowners, door colour says everything about who you are. If your door is . . .

Black: You are the most successful in your career out of your neighbours.

Red: You are an extrovert who is relaxed, happy and outgoing.

Purple: You love socializing and have a very close-knit group of friends.

Pink: You take chances in life, have the most friends of anyone and yet are full of mischief.

White or brown: You are completely content with your life.

Orange or terracotta: You are happy with your relationships.

Green: Considered the most trustworthy, you are also intelligent and sophisticated.

Yellow: You make great money but you're loud and admit to being a bad neighbour.

A Canadian top 10

Canadian paint brand Beauti-Tone, meanwhile, has announced its Top 10 front door colours.

Outdoors, colours look less intense than they do indoors so you need to "choose saturated hues that are darker than the colours you would have envisioned for your front door," Beauti-Tone creative director Bev Bell says in a release.

The top 10 colours, chosen for their strong character and welcoming personality, are:

- Loving It (3C2-8): A red that commands attention.

- Earthenware (3E1-8): A friendly, earthy colour that beckons you in and helps you feel grounded.

- Wet Sands (3H2-7): With this Midas Touch, your home will look like a million bucks.

To enter the Great Outdoors contest, renovate a door using Farrow & Ball paints, then upload a photo to farrow-ball.com or to their Facebook page before April 12. The top 20 top doors across Europe, the UK and Canada will be voted on. The winner will be announced April 30. Prizes include more than $8,000 in Farrow & Ball products as well as Hunter wellington boots. Farrow & Ball products are available at Uproar Paint and Paper, 1109 Wellington St. West, 613-722-9891, and Decorators Choice Paint Store, 1511-1497 Innes Rd., 613-736-8212.

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